Journal

A Convenient Fiction

Posted on: February 14th, 2012 by robert No Comments

 

“He who does not bring to the study of religion a sort of religious sentiment cannot speak about it. He is like a blind man trying to talk about colour.” Emil Durkheim

“Religion is an illusion and it derives its strength from the fact it falls in with our instinctual desires.” Freud

The wide-eyed black woman, dressed in her Sunday best of twin set and pearls, gripped mercilessly onto the handle bars of the bus as though she was clutching on for life over a trap door into the fiery flames of hell.... Read More

RIP Christopher Hitchens 1949-2011

Posted on: December 15th, 2011 by robert No Comments

 

"I suppose I should close now because I've said all I wanted to say for myself... In the meantime we have the same job we always had, to say, as thinking people and as humans, that there are no final solutions, there is no absolute truth, there is no supreme leader, there is no totalitarian solution that says that if you will just give up your freedom of inquiry, if you would just give up, if you will simply abandon your critical faculties, a world of idiotic bliss can be yours. We have to begin by repudiating all such claims - grand rabbis, chief ayatollahs, infallible popes, the peddlers of mutant quasi-political worship, the dear leader, great leader, we have no need of any of this. And looking at them and their record I realise it is they who are the grand imposters, and my own imposture (has been) mild by comparison."

Snapshots From The Road

Posted on: March 31st, 2009 by robert No Comments

 

I'm covertly eyeing a group of spirited twenty-somethings animatedly huddled around a table in a coffee shop on Hollywood Boulevard. They're impossibly stylish, pulchritudinous and oozing from their being is that very American sense of self-belief that most British either lack or are reluctant to display for fear of reproach. With this lot, it's more confidence than rodomontade. Their effusiveness is infectious, and highly entertaining while observed over the rim of my Americano.... Read More

Three Minutes Slow

Posted on: March 25th, 2009 by robert No Comments

 

The other day while waiting in the queue at a train station I happened upon the clock on the wall that, stuck to its face, had a note that read: 'Please be advised that this clock is 3 minutes slow'. This, of course, seemed absurd and immediately struck me that its typical of what's wrong with people and organisations these days. In the time it took to write and attach the note, someone could have pootled across the concourse to buy some batteries from the shop and corrected the time. I told this story to MB on the phone who found it equally perturbing before the chat turned to this play I've written. She'd read the script, since I had her in mind for one of the parts.... Read More

Ute

Posted on: January 6th, 2009 by robert No Comments

 

To beat the post-New Year comedown, I hire a Ute at Taren Point and drive 3 hours down the South coast to Sussex where friends of MH have a holiday retreat. The guys are already there and have been since before the festive season. It's the first weekend of 2009, and after the tumult of the holiday period, I jump at the invite to escape.... Read More

Submerged

Posted on: December 29th, 2008 by robert No Comments

 

Doused in manuka honey I tentatively step into the shallow waters of the pool in the Port Hacking River in Sydney. The area is enclosed from the rest of the river with a small wooden jetty on one side and wire fencing around the entire parameter that keeps the sharks at bay. The icy chill of the water underneath betrays the sparkle from the unforgiving sun on the surface and I'm temporarily frozen to the spot. Thin silver fish that appear lit from inside swim around my calves in the bracing water while my feet hover over sharp rocks decorating the sand in the murky depths.... Read More

That Day

Posted on: December 26th, 2008 by robert No Comments

 

It's sometimes the small things which can reawaken our senses and have return to us a semblance of joy and an appreciation of the world which had hitherto been lost.... Read More

From Tenby With Tux…

Posted on: July 20th, 2008 by robert No Comments

 

In 1830, the 11 year old Princess Victoria opened the Royal Victoria Park in Bath. The legend goes that the following day a newspaper reported on the event and remarked upon the soon to be Queen's 'dowdy' appearance and ‘thickness of ankle.’ So incensed she was by the comments that she vowed never to return to the city ever again. It was a promise she kept managing to shun the city for the duration of her reign. Even when travelling through on the Royal train in later years, she'd order courtiers to pull down the blinds in every carriage to avoid setting eyes on the place.... Read More

La Viva Eivissa

Posted on: June 29th, 2008 by robert No Comments

 

My Darling V,

Well hang on to your safety belts cos this one's going to rock you baby!

Doesn't it seem like only yesterday we were in Treptower Park in Berlin, playing that game of rummy through the billows of barbecue smoke. I can't recall who won since the time was occupied ogling the teutonic minions in our midst. I'm rotten at staying in touch, and your silence is I suppose my penance. But since I must have pen in hand at least once on holiday to stave off boredom, I'm writing you this from the sunny Isle of Ibiza. La Viva Eivissa!... Read More

A Week in Andalucia

Posted on: October 29th, 2007 by robert No Comments

 

Every day has dawned blissfull, not a breath of wind, warm and the sun shining, a great silence all around. Nothing galvanizes the soul like a week away in the sun, particularly as the onset of Winter takes hold back in dear old Blighty. We've come to Conil, in Southern Spain, staying in a pleasant yet compact villa, located within a traditional complex off a quiet side street. M is keen to point out the resort is now out of season and assures me it's not usually so sombre. I on the other hand find its eerie peacefulness agreeable. The tranquility is just the tonic after London. Instead of bustle, the hushed atmosphere here is medicinal and adds to the sleepy town's authentic Andalucian charm.... Read More